Municipalities and industries are currently faced with the significant problem of treating solid and liquid waste and further, in treating the solid and liquid waste and disposing of same without any detrimental effects to the surrounding environment. This problem is complicated in that in many industrial processes, certain toxic substances are generated which are found in the sludge together with the normal pathogens and microorganisms which must be neutralized and stabilized. Certain Federal requirements require each industrial point source to identify the outflow of substances from the industrial process and in many instances, depending upon the content of such outflow, the industrial processor is required to take certain steps to remove certain of these substances.
Hazardous and toxic substances contained in the industrial waste pose significant problems in that the industrial processor must provide additional chemical or mechanical processes in order to remove the substances. The remaining sludge is then either treated by a privately-owned treatment plant or is introduced into a public sewerage system. The additional chemical or mechanical processes required of the industrial processor are not always one hundred percent effective in removing the hazardous and toxic materials and they thus find their way into a municipal sewer system. Additionally, the cost to the industrial processor for these additional chemical and mechanical processes is substantial and sometimes prohibitive. Still further, in many instances, there is no chemical or mechanical process to neutralize the hazardous or toxic materials and they are therefore merely filtered from the sludge and stored by the industrial processor or transported to a designated site for storage.
The industry has required for some time, a method and apparatus for the destruction and disintegration of these hazardous and toxic substances such that the aforementioned storage requirements and the possibility of contamination of municipal sewerage systems could be eliminated. The instant method and apparatus provides for the destruction and disintegration of these hazardous and toxic substances while at the same time sterilizing pathogens and microorganisms contained in the sludge such that the resultant end product is an inert granulated solid which in most cases can be disposed of in sanitary landfills without any detriment to the environment. The applicant can accomplish the aforementioned end product by a unique process which provides for a substantially greater degree of dewatering of the sludge coupled with the disintegration of the resultant solids.